Assemblyman Billy Jones (D-Plattsburgh) and Senator Betty Little (R-Queensbury) announced that they introduced legislation to tackle road salt pollution in the Adirondacks by establishing the Adirondack Road Salt Reduction Task Force and conducting a park wide reduction pilot program. Jones announced the measure during the Adirondack Champlain Regional Salt Summit held in Lake Placid at the beginning of October.

“During the winter months, and especially in the North Country, road maintenance is critical so drivers can safely get where they need to go,” Jones said. “However, the pollution from years of excessive salt use has allowed harmful and toxic substances to wreak havoc on the environment and contaminate local wells, putting our families’ health at risk. It’s time that we find good, feasible solutions to maintaining roads that both preserve our natural resources and protect the safety of our loved ones.”

While ensuring that drivers can safely travel winter roads is a top priority, road salt has contributed to pollution in the Adirondack Park, contaminating private wells and groundwater and seeping into area lakes.[1] A recent study from the Adirondack Watershed Institute of Paul Smith’s College showed that of nearly 500 wells it tested throughout the Adirondack Park, 64 percent of wells downhill from state roads had sodium levels exceeding the federally recommended health limit of 20 parts per million (ppm). A portion of those wells also exceeded the 250 ppm recommended health limit for chloride, a component of salt, with some measuring around 1,000 ppm.[2] The excessive salt use also has a harmful effect on local lakes and wildlife.[3]

The legislation would establish the Adirondack Road Salt Reduction Task Force, which would gather and summarize information currently available and recommend winter road maintenance practices to best remediate salt contamination. Additionally, the measure would direct the state Department of Transportation (DOT), Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Department of Health (DOH) to conduct a three-year road salt application reduction pilot program. Recommendations from the task force would be due by Sept. 1, 2021, and would serve as a guide for the state departments to reduce the sodium and chloride levels in surface and groundwater. This legislation will address pollution that’s gone on far too long, helping ensure that our families have access to clean drinking water and that the Adirondack ecosystem isn’t irreversibly compromised, Jones and Little noted.

“We have an emerging clean water crisis in the Adirondacks, stemming from decades of heavy road salt application on our state highways,” said William C. Janeway, executive director of the Adirondack Council. “State leadership is needed now, before this problem gets too big to tackle. We thank Assemblyman Jones for stepping into this important role. This bill will help New York to preserve the safety of our roadways and while protecting lakes, rivers and clean drinking water at the same time.”

[1] lakeplacidnews.com/page/content.detail/id/529350/Pollution-named-No--3-environmental-threat-to-the-Adirondacks.html?nav=5005

[2] adirondackexplorer.org/stories/road-salt-well-contamination

[3] Ibid.